{"id":871299,"date":"2026-08-25T20:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T20:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/871299\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T20:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T20:36:14","slug":"cne-food-2026-way-to-eat-food-without-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/871299\/","title":{"rendered":"CNE food 2026: Way to eat food without admission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jessica Smith speaks with attendees about what excites them most about the exhibition. <\/p>\n

There is a way to stop by The Ex to eat all the zany carnival food this year, without having to pay admission. <\/p>\n

Those looking for a way to cut down on costs at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) can considering dropping by for lunch at the start of the week and opt for the EXcelunch Special<\/a>. <\/p>\n

From 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. from Mondays to Wednesdays, fairgoers can swing by the Saskatchewan, Princes\u2019 or TTC and GO gates to buy an EXcelunch ticket to the park. The ticket cost $30, inclusive of HST, and is only available for purchase at the gates.<\/p>\n

Now, yes, a ticket must be purchased at the get go, but there is a way to get that $30 back after.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept was created to encourage visitors to come for lunch, but they don\u2019t need to purchase food to get a refunded ticket,\u201d Tran Nguyen, spokesperson for the CNE, said in an email.<\/p>\n

After heading into the park and filling up on all of the new menu items this year<\/a>, visitors must return to the same gate they purchased the EXcelunch Special and request a refund there.<\/p>\n

Refunds are issued only if visitors leave by 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

The CNE first introduced this program in the early \u201800s, Nguyen says, as a way to encourage locals to \u201ctake advantage of the Fair\u2019s limitless lunch offerings right in their own backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ex started up on Aug. 21 and continues on through Labour Day weekend, ending on Sept. 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jessica Smith speaks with attendees about what excites them most about the exhibition. There is a way to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[712,45,49,48],"class_list":["post-871299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-apple-news","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}